Recollection is a wonderful word. It speaks of a state of integration when the bits and pieces of our fragmented beings are “re-collected” and there is a sense of greater wholeness or oneness with God.
All of ordinary life seems calculated to scatter us — the dirty house that always needs cleaning, the ringing telephone, the broken down car, the crying child, the TV news alert, and on and on, sometimes all at once, demanding our attention.
If we are living in the shallow, heady self, harried by people and events and our reactions to them, it’s all too much and we come apart at the seams. It is then we must take our shattered state and return home for repair. We are not like Humpty Dumpty who couldn’t be put together. We have a King who will take our broken pieces and make us whole again.
Coming apart from time to time is essential for our daily spiritual health. John Wesley’s mother had so many children she couldn’t get away, but at certain periods of the day she would put her apron over her head and her chidden wouldn’t bother her because they knew she was communing with God. Jesus himself rose early in the morning and spent whole nights in prayer. If the Lord of our faith found this necessary, how much more do we need to come apart so we don’t come apart from Him?
Remember Me,
in activity
when harried voices cry
and sometimes sigh,
“I must get it done — achieve!”
Stop then, listen, believe,
and rest in Me
I will work and you just be.
Editor’s Note: This is from a collection of poems and essays written by my friend Alma Newitt. Alma passed away in February of 2014.
